Type “M” Subsidized Merchant is the second spaceship battlemap from Scrying Eye Games’ new series Scrying Eye Shipyard and is compatible with the Traveller system. It is a very simple spaceship, and yet so perfect for its intended uses. Sometimes simplicity and ease-of-use easily overshadow complication and excessive use of detail.

There are two levels to this merchant ship, which make it versatile enough for several types of in-game uses. The lower level is dedicated to a very large cargo hold along with engines, fuel, and other utility-type things. Yes the cargo hold is just a large open area, but the engines and maneuvering drives are not. These are beautifully detailed and even include crew stations adding to the realism. There appears to be three doors into the hold; one in the rear and one on each side.

The top level is dedicated to staterooms and the bridge along with various other things (including weapons turrets on each side should defense be necessary). While the regular crew staterooms are included, there is a good number of “guest” staterooms should one need to ride with their cargo or the passengers are essentially the cargo. These rooms are fairly cut-and-paste but contain the details necessary to understand their purpose. There is also a cryogenic hold for those who plan on traveling very long distances.

Topping this off is a simple detail that makes it all perfect: the roof. The battlemap includes a decorated roof to finalize that bit of realism.

OVERALL

This series of spaceship battlemaps from Scrying Eye Games is perfect for the sci-fi game system that utilizes a standard 1″ x 1″ grid (or 25mm) (and even those that don’t use minis). Yes it’s simple, but can yield many possibilities. Especially for character’s looking to find a ride across the galaxy.

RATINGS

Publication Quality: 10 out of 10
Type “M” Subsidized Merchant has the same great layout and presentation as the Type “S” spaceship. The cargo hold and floor of the upper-level are essentially grids on their own so the 1″ x 1″ grid is overlaid perfectly. In addition, it is centered properly within the publication (considering page breaks) making the individual pages very easy to understand.

Visual Appeal: 10 out of 10
As stated, the spaceship is quite simple and uses a lot of cut-and-paste effects with the staterooms and the abundance of chairs and work spaces. However, they all fit together perfectly, there aren’t too much or too little, and contain just the right amount of details to be useful and easy to understand. And if you don’t quite understand something, there is an overview page with a designation for every room.

Desire to Use: 9 out of 10
As a merchant ship or any type of spaceship dedicated to transporting goods and/or people, Type “M” Subsidized Merchant is a perfect fit, or at least a very favorable one. However, it has very little use outside of this and lacks the stopping power should it be caught in a battle (it’s a transportation ship, it doesn’t need firepower). It’s versatile but limited in its use. Should you find yourself needing this type of spaceship, I definitely recommend it.

Overall: 10 out of 10
As a merchant-class, transportation-oriented spaceship, Type “M” Subsidized Merchant is perfect! It has plenty of space to hold your cargo, plenty of space to hold your personnel, a good looking bridge and crew stations, and there’s even a pair of guns should a small amount of trouble arise.

First off, this is a very large map if the page count didn’t clue you in. This contains both an interior and an exterior look at this ship, so you can really set up a tactical based adventure around this. Of course, your campaign will need to be in a modern or sci-fi setting since the ship is full of computers, guns, and other tech you wouldn’t find in a fantasy setting. The entire map is full color which the publisher admits will probably drain your printer cartridge due to the size and the fact it is “color-intensive.” Because of this, Scrying Eye Games suggests that you only print off the parts you will actually use. Still, I can’t imagine where you would only ever use a section of the map since it’s all a single gigantic ship.

There are actually three levels to the ship, but in flipping through the pages, there is no discernable difference between the lower interior and upper interior and because of this, people who aren’t used to print and putting together maps might mix up the pieces. In fact there’s no assembly guide, which really should be required for a map this side. With something like this, always assume your product is a gamer’s first or that they are very young, just in case. Instead, the only clue you get comes from the table of contents which gives a page count of what pieces go where. For example pages 4-11 make up the Interior Upper Deck while pages 12-16 make up the Interior Lower Deck. There’s just one problem. The table of contents in your PDF reader will say the exact opposite, It says pages 4-11 are the lower deck and 12-16 are the upper deck. So which is correct? I say go with the paper based ToC rather than the PDF version but the fact a typo/error of this size made it through production doesn’t assure me of quality control with this piece.

Visually the map is pretty good for the interior sections, but lacking in detail and a bit dull for the exterior. The last two pages of the map even have a guide to the different interior sections and what they represent. The interior has a lot of little touches that make the “Pretty Penny” feel lived in and like a real battleship, but the exterior is just a dull blue with no actual texture or detail. I was disappointed by the quality differences here.

It’s hard to recommend picking up the “Pretty Penny” unless you are specifically playing a Traveller campaign, so its geared for a very niche audience, but in a pinch it can work with a modern or sci-fi map as long as you’ve really tailored the adventure around this. The “Pretty Penny” could make a decent Spelljammer after all…

This is the second deck-plan of about 20 that they have planned to release. I hope they do the Shivva Patrol Frigate.

The scale is 25 mm/square. The side of a square is 5 ft. This fits a number of counters, card board heroes and miniatures nicely. But it doesn’t match the classic scale exactly (but close enough). It also makes the deck-plan of the ship quite large. The ship is fitted within 19 pages that you have to assemble yourself. It would have been nice if there was a hi-res image-file includes as well, so you could print it out on a large printer/plotter.

There are lots of details in the images. This is very nice compared to the standard classic deck-plans. Now you can see how everything will fit, and where all the rubbish will end up…

The need for deck-plans has always been there. In my group, and in other groups that I have played in, we have always used deck-plans. Even though there might not be any combat within the ship, it is always nice to see where your character lives and works. If there is combat within the ship, a deck-plan is a must.

Combat can be solved using standard traveller rules, or using special on-board rules like Snapshot.

Even though this is a very nice product, I will not use it. The reason for this is that my group is quite tainted by what the March Harrier from the Traveller Adventure looked like. The March Harrier is a type R. (The classic type M is a 600-ton Subsidized Liner.) There are a number of elevators in this ship. Where is the Launch? This is not the same ship. It doesn’t match the March Harrier. But for a new group it would probably be very nice to have this pretty deck-plan on their gaming table.